The occurrence of cerebrovascular atherosclerosis in Alzheimer’s disease patients

BACKGROUND Both Alzheimer's disease (AD) and cerebrovascular atherosclerosis (CA) contributed to dementia in an aged population. Whether they share the same mechanism is unknown. AIM Our goal was to explore the occurrence rates of CA in AD patients. METHOD Here we examined the degree of CA in different groups of AD patients with contrast angiography. Ninety-three AD patients were recruited to the present study. Contrast computed tomography scanning and contrast angiography were performed for CA analyses. RESULT We found that the cerebrovascular plaques were common in AD patients, which was partly correlated with the severity of AD (as determined by cognitive decline). CONCLUSION We concluded that vascular dementia may partly correlate with AD pathology.